A longtime McHenry County College history instructor has deep ties Marshall Field’s, the iconic former Chicago department store.

Sarah Sullivan worked at the State Street store with her husband before they married, and in grad school researched the history of the store and the man for whom it’s named.

“The more I researched, the more interested I became,” said Sullivan, of Crystal Lake. For years, she has shared her knowledge of the storied department store – said to be the first to offer restaurants and bathrooms – with students and attendees at speaking engagements.

At 8 p.m. Friday, Sullivan – who grew up in Darien, regularly shopping at the Marshall Field’s in Oak Brook – will appear on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories” to share some of her knowledge.

“Field’s was a Chicago institution that played a role in many of the city’s major historic events,” Sullivan said. “Marshall Field’s was at one time the largest department store in the world, and pioneered many innovations in customer service and retail.”

Marshall Field’s played roles in events such as the Eastland Disaster and the Iroquois Theater fire, and supported both the 1893 and 1933 Chicago World’s Fairs. The store helped raise money during both World Wars and contributed significantly to Chicago’s cultural institutions. The Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium are named after the first and second presidents of Marshall Field and Company, respectively, Sullivan said.

Marshall Field began working in department stores when he was 12. He was “amazingly good” at it, Sullivan said.

“He knew the price of everything in the store, and he soaked up all the retail ideas,” Sullivan said.

In the 1860s, Chicago businessman Potter Palmer, of Chicago’s historic Palmer House, brought Field and Levi Leiter, another prominent Chicago businessman, into his wholesale dry-goods business. The trio formed Field, Palmer & Leiter.

They “gradually got into retail,” Sullivan said.

Eventually, Sullivan said, Palmer retired, Field bought out Leiter, and in 1881, he took control of what became the famed Chicago department store.

The landmark building on State Street, which occupies 35 acres, has 65 display windows, was not built all at once. The first two buildings burned down. The first part of the current building was built in 1877. Over the years, it was expanded to what is there today – a Macy’s.

Sullivan said Marshall Field’s completely changed how shopping was done. Women didn’t typically go shopping, as that task was for the men who haggled prices. The roads were made of dirt, there were no sidewalks, and women wore long dresses. So many women who had the means stayed home and bought from catalogues or a traveling salesman, Sullivan said.

But in the 1890s, shopping became a social event, and Marshall Field’s became a destination. It was the era of “ladies who lunch” and “Marshall Field’s was a place to see and be seen,” Sullivan said.

Field’s began opening restaurants – at one time, there were six in the State Street store – and bathrooms “that changed things for women. Affluent women started shopping, and shopping became more leisurely.”

Marshall Field’s began offering separate men’s and women’s lounges with postal, delivery and valet services. Field, who was on the Chicago Transportation Authority board, made sure the train stopped at the store.

He “coined the phrase ‘bargain basement,’” and was among the first, if not the first, to put discounted items in the basement, Sullivan said.

“He was a leader in returns and price managing and [among the first] to let people touch merchandise,” Sullivan said. “He was the first to decide maybe it is a good idea to sell lingerie to women and not men.”

Field’s was the first to have an escalator and to decorate store windows. The store was also among the first to offer a bridal registry, revolving credit and delivery.

Field provided employees with lounges and a fitness area. At the store, customers were given access to every phonebook in the country, and in a time when people typically didn’t have telephones in their homes, there were telephones in the store for people to use, she said.

Sullivan’s research eventually became a presentation, in which she also breaks down the history of the famed Frango Mints, Walnut Room and Marshall Field’s Christmas trees.

In 2018, she was selected as a speaker for the Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Program, which sends experts across the state to share Illinois-related topics, Christina Haggerty, chief advancement and marketing officer at the college, said.

Candace Maloney, adult programmer and volunteer assistant at the Huntley Library, where Sullivan has presented on various Chicago-related topics, said “Sarah is an outstanding speaker.”

“She loves history and has some excellent programs to present and knows her stuff,” Maloney said. “Everyone is excited when she presents here because her research uncovers a lot of hidden information that she shares that maybe we are not aware of. I really enjoy how she connects all of Chicago’s history with the founders and what they contributed to the city. And of course, Marshall Field was an important part of that group.”

In November 2019, Sullivan presented her Marshall Field’s talk at MCC as part of the college’s “Experts and Insights” Faculty Speaker Series. A producer from WTTW’s “Chicago Stories” came across a recording of that event, and reached out, Haggerty said.

In 2023, Sullivan was interviewed for “Chicago Stories” at The Dole in Crystal Lake, which she described as a “positive experience.”

Sullivan said she hopes viewers “enjoy some fond memories and that, especially with the world so chaotic right now, that this gives them joy and a respite from the stress they might be feeling.”

“I also hope they gain an appreciation of why Marshall Field’s was such an institution in Chicago and how it contributed to the growth of the city. I really hope they have a Frango - or two, or three - while watching and think about how magical a place Marshall Field’s was.”